Steel City Drones — Attraction in Carnegie

The Fire Marshal’s Office falls within Allegheny County Emergency Services. The need to document fire and explosion scenes, aid in aerial documentation of criminal investigations, survey disasters, and instances where aerial perspectives are safer than risking first responders are just some of the reasons behind establishing our drone unit.

We began our drone program a little over five years ago when we obtained a grant and purchased the DJI Inspire One. At the time, the FAA regulations regarding drone operations was in flux, especially with public safety. At that time, we spent countless amounts of time with FAA representatives and people claiming to be experts in this field of drone operations. After about a year's time, we were no further ahead with our drone program then when we started.

Dave King, of Steel City Drones, was introduced to us about four years ago. Since then, Allegheny County Emergency Services has contracted with Dave to develop our Standard Operating Procedures, as well as provide training and equipment/drone purchases. I am extremely impressed by Dave's eager and willingness to make our unit the best that it can be. Dave provided us with valuable guidance on our last purchase of a DJI M200, which suits our missions perfectly. The Standard Operating Procedures that Dave developed are extremely in-depth and encompass every aspect of the drone operation and flight procedures, with a strong emphasis on safety. We also contracted Dave for five members from our office to attend his on-line training academy. In addition to this training, Dave has met with myself and others to provide one-on-one ground school tutoring and test preparation.

Dave has been there every step of the way. His attention to detail and focus on safety are commendable. I speak from experience, from attending other drone test and operation preparation courses, Dave is more focused on the student learning how to fly safely and in accordance with FAA regulations than just teaching enough to past the Part 107 exam.

Obviously, I cannot say enough about our satisfaction with Dave King and Steel City Drones. I hope I provided you some highlights of why we contracted with him and why we will continue to work with Dave in the years to come. He is thorough, safe and a pleasure to work with. In my experience, he is...

I wanted to thank you for the incredible training experience Steel City Drone’s provided our agency recently. Our department recognized the fact that we needed to add a UAS/Drone program to our agency, but we did not know the best way to go about getting started and ensuring it was implemented the “right way”. Thanks to Steel City Drones, we were able to identify what equipment needs our agency had, we were able to procure those items and were able to get our first 10 pilots the training they needed to become operational. You and your staff provided great hands on training along with additional classroom training on various topics to include equipment familiarization, ground school and FAA rules and regulations. Even after the culmination of our training, you and your staff have gone above and beyond to ensure questions get answered, technical support is provided and even help with our agency polices and procedures manuals. This includes the online flight academy videos and the FAA Part 107 Exam Course. Most recently, our equipment suffered a unique software/firmware issue and Steel City Drones sent us a loaner equipment to better help identify and diagnose the issue and problem we were experiencing. I greatly appreciate that you are always responsive to emails, calls and texts, which has truly been instrumental in getting our UAV/Drone program operational. For anyone considering starting a UAV/Drone program or are interested in any aspect of UAV/Drone training, I would highly recommend Steel City Drones. Your services are very professional and ensured we are set up in accordance with industry standards and federal regulations. Thank you again.

Captain William Davis Professional Standards Bureau Joplin Police Department 303 E 3rd...

I purchased a Matrice 300 and P1 from Steel City. Dave was deeply consultative during the purchase process with in-depth knowledge on equipment and mission-fit. Once he received my drone, he test flew and and recorded a customized "getting started" video for me with my actual equipment. He also provided his pre-recorded video training course as a courtesy. The course was very helpful. On the setup videos, I mirrored what he was doing real time so it was almost like having in-person instruction. The battery tips were very informative as were the episodes on manual flying drills. I've been doing almost exclusively automated flights with my P4pro. When I trained for my PPL and Instrument ratings a decade back, we drilled the basics day in and day out - all hand flying. It wasn't until I got my Mooney M20J and was flying on my own that I started using autopilot. So I've had that sinking feeling that I didn't really KNOW how to fly my drone properly. David's video guides helped me...